Monthly Archives: May 2014

I love the act of digging through an old bookstore, or antique mall, or garage sale for books the older the better. The books themselves have a story to tell and I am prone to wonder and imagine too much of my day in their stories. I’m fairly certain that I’ve had this affliction for quite some time. My family would argue that I have many afflictions this being the most definitive of all. I contend that it is one of the many layers of a storyteller of which I received a double helping of the outrageous.

But old books among other things remind me of something from my youth that is just beyond my touch. The nearly undescriptive scent that tickles a faint memory. The something that links the “who we are” to the “who we were” to the “who they were.” So nothing breaks my heart anymore than when someone brings in moldy, musty, still damp books. Honestly, who owned these? Swamp Thing?

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Harry Dresden has dazzled us for fourteen years and with Skin Game the fifteenth book in Jim Butcher’s wildly popular Dresden Files series looks to continue the trend.

Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard, is about to have a very bad day…

Because as Winter Knight to the Queen of Air and Darkness, Harry never knows what the scheming Mab might want him to do. Usually, it’s something awful.. He doesn’t know the half of it…

Mab has just traded Harry’s skills to pay off one of her debts. And now he must help a group of supernatural villains—led by one of Harry’s most dreaded and despised enemies, Nicodemus Archleone—to break into the highest-security vault in town, so that they can then access the highest-security vault in the Nevernever.

It’s a smash and grab job to recover the literal Holy Grail from the vaults of the greatest treasure hoard in the supernatural world—which belongs to the one and only Hades, Lord of the freaking Underworld and generally unpleasant character. Worse, Dresden suspects that there is another game afoot that no one is talking about. And he’s dead certain that Nicodemus has no intention of allowing any of his crew to survive the experience. Especially Harry.

Dresden’s always been tricky, but he’s going to have to up his backstabbing game to survive this mess—assuming his own allies don’t end up killing him before his enemies get the chance…

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I feel fine, this being despite the love affair with what happens when the world around us collapses. In a time where we’re still avidly awaiting the next seasons of The Walking Dead, The 100, and Defiance lets take a moment to look at the books that take us beyond the end of all we know.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

In a novel set in an indefinite, futuristic, post-apocalyptic world, a father and his young son make their way through the ruins of a devastated American landscape, struggling to survive and preserve the last remnants of their own humanity.

The Stand by Stephen King

A monumentally devastating plague leaves only a few survivors who, while experiencing dreams of a battle between good and evil, move toward an actual confrontation as they migrate to Boulder, Colorado.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

First published in 1959 to critical acclaim and enduring popularity, a new edition of the landmark novel follows the struggle of the Monks of the Order of Saint Leibowitz to preserve the remnants of civilization after a nuclear war and to protect them against tyranny.

The 100 by Kass Morgan

Ever since a devastating nuclear war, humanity has lived on spaceships far above Earth’s radioactive surface. Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents — considered expendable by society — are being sent on a dangerous mission: to recolonize the planet. It could be their second chance at life…or it could be a suicide mission.

World War Z by Max Brooks

An account of the decade-long conflict between humankind and hordes of the predatory undead is told from the perspective of dozens of survivors who describe in their own words the epic human battle for survival.

The Last Man by Mary Shelley

The last man by Mary Shelley marks the beginning of a new genre in the field of literature, the post-apocalyptic fiction. Set in the 21st century, this novel is the premonition of a dark future, where a deadly plague brings an end to human civilization. An immaculate amalgamation of subtle romance, destructive wars and a catastrophic plague.

The Passage by Justin Cronin

An epic and gripping tale of catastrophe and survival, The Passage is the story of Amy—abandoned by her mother at the age of six, pursued and then imprisoned by the shadowy figures behind a government experiment of apocalyptic proportions. But Special Agent Brad Wolgast, the lawman sent to track her down, is disarmed by the curiously quiet girl and risks everything to save her. As the experiment goes nightmarishly wrong, Wolgast secures her escape—but he can’t stop society’s collapse. And as Amy walks alone, across miles and decades, into a future dark with violence and despair, she is filled with the mysterious and terrifying knowledge that only she has the power to save the ruined world.

Poison Princess by Kresley Cole

In the aftermath of a cataclysmic event, sixteen-year-old Evie, from a well-to-do Louisiana family, learns that her terrible visions are actually prophecies and that there are others like herself–embodiments of Tarot cards destined to engage in an epic battle.

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank

“Alas, Babylon.” Those fateful words heralded the end. When a nuclear holocaust ravages the United States, a thousand years of civilization are stripped away overnight, and tens of millions of people are killed instantly. But for one small town in Florida, miraculously spared, the struggle is just beginning, as men and women of all backgrounds join together to confront the darkness.

Patriots by James Wesley Rawles

After a cataclysmic financial crisis prompts a total collapse of American society and forces people to fend for themselves, a group of protagonists make their way to a shared secure ranch in northern Idaho, where they struggle to survive against violent looting and natural hazard.

One Second After by William R. Forstchen

Apocalypse prophecies and terrorist uprisings in a near-future world erupt when all of the planet’s technologies abruptly stop working, triggering global looting, food riots, and insurrections; a situation that places humanity’s fate in the hands of a small mountain village in the American south.

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

The city of Ember was built as a last refuge for the human race. Two hundred years later, the great lamps that light the city are beginning to flicker. When Lina finds part of an ancient message, she’s sure it holds a secret that will save the city. She and her friend Doon must decipher the message before the lights go out on Ember forever!

Swan Song by Robert McCammon

In a nightmarish, post-holocaust world, an ancient evil roams a devastated America, gathering the forces of human greed and madness, searching for a child named Swan who possesses the gift of life.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

A novel of the future explores a world that has been devastated by ecological and scientific disasters.

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A latest entry in the best-selling Outlander series that includes AnEcho in the Bone finds Jamie returning to Claire’s side as a new army sweeps through revolutionary Philadelphia

Hardcover 1008 pgs–list price 35.00 our price 26.25

“The Book of Life” #3 in the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness.

Historian and witch Diana Bishop and her vampire scientist husband Matthew Clairmont return from a trip to the past still searching for the elusive alchemy tome Ashmole 782 in the final installment of the best-selling trilogy following “Shadow of Night.”

Hardcover 560 pgs list price 28.95–our price 21.74

“Remains of Innocence ” by J.A. Jance.

While investigating two separate cases, Sheriff Joanna Brady must discover if the death of a family friend whose body was found in a limestone cavern is linked to the discovery of a fortune in $100 bills hidden in the house of a hoarder.

Hardcover 352 pgs –list price 26.99 our price 20.25

“Born of Fury” #6 in the League series by Sherrilyn Kenyon.

A founding member of the Sentella organization that has declared war on the League, Hank ruthlessly protects his brethren only to meet his match in Sumi Antaxas, a determined League assassin.

Hardcover 496 pgs–list price 25.99 our price 19.50

“The City” by Dean Koontz

A gifted musician relates the terrible and wonderful events of 1967 that impacted his family and friends, from his indomitable “piano man” grandfather and struggling single mother to the everyday saints and sinners who shaped his life.

Hardcover 352 pgs list price 28.00 our price 20.99

“Wayfaring Stranger” by James Lee Burke

A decade after taking a shot at Bonnie and Clyde during one of their notorious armed robberies, a Depression teen-turned-soldier escapes death during the Battle of the Bulge and marries a beautiful young woman with whom he seeks his fortune along the Texas-Louisiana oil coast. By the Edgar Award winning author of Light of the World.

Hardcover 544 pgs list price 27.99 our price 20.99

For some fun sized reading here is a list of upcoming Summer titles in Trade Size Paperback.

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Most book clubs have required reading for the month that half of the group didn’t read, some high falutin snack food and a shared bottle of wine that you drink with your pinkie extended.

Well this is not that book club. So buckle up buttercup because this is Chick Lit n’ Chocolate!

We decided that we would be different. The ladies share the books that they read and consume copious amounts of chocolate while laughing the night away.

This open group meets at the store on the 4th Friday of the month around 6:30 and running until everyone stops talking. In the summer months we’ve even been known to continue the festivities at undisclosed Mexican restaurants for libations.

Give us a call at the store if you are interested. (573)449-8637

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Lately it seems that the theaters and our TV sets are filled with adaptations of our favorite books. Whether it is George R.R. Martin’s “Game of Thrones,” Veronica Roth’s “Divergent” or Craig Johnson’s “Longmire” series there is something for all ages and all tastes. And even though we have this need to see our favorite book brought to life there is always the nagging fear of disappointment. Will they sound the way we imagined or even look somewhat like the author described them? This summer brings about a bevy of books going to the screens, and here are our picks for the season.

“Edge of Tomorrow” the Sci-Fi novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka opens in theaters June 6th starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Originally written as “All You Need is Kill” in 2009, Sakurazaka’s freshman offering attacks with a viciousness that fellow sci-fi writer John Scalzi said, “reads fast, kicks ass, and keeps on coming.”

Also premiering in theaters on June 6th is the screen adaptation of John Green’s “The Fault In Our Stars.”

“[Green] shows us true love—two teenagers helping and accepting each other through the most humiliating physical and emotional ordeals—and it is far more romantic than any sunset on the beach.”—New York Times Book Review

Doug has graciously given this two “thumbs up” for sticking with him months after reading it.

“Outlander” on Starz beginning August 8th. Based on the critically acclaimed series by Diana Gabaldon, “Outlander” is already looking quite capable of bringing this powerhouse it’s due.

Claire Randall is leading a double life. She has a husband in one century, and a lover in another…

In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon–when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord…1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire’s destiny in soon inextricably intertwined with Clan MacKenzie and the forbidden Castle Leoch. She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life …and shatter her heart. For here, James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire…and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

Then there is “The Strain.” The cable channel FX is bringing Guillermo Del Toro’s Horror/Vampire series to us on July 13th.

“A high-tech vampire epic….Terrifying.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“Part The Andromeda Strain, part Night of the Living Dead.”
—Salon.com

“Chuck Hogan is known for his taut thrillers, Guillermo del Toro for his surreal horror films…The Strain brings out the best of each.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune

An epic battle for survival begins between man and vampire in The Strain—the first book in a heart-stopping trilogy from one of Hollywood’s most inventive storytellers and a critically acclaimed thriller writer. Guillermo del Toro, the genius director of the Academy Award-winningPan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy, and Hammett Award-winning author Chuck Hogan have joined forces to boldly reinvent the vampire novel. Brilliant, blood-chilling, and unputdownable, The Strain is a nightmare of the first order.

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Are you tired of seeing the same selection of magazines? Look no further than Village Books for something a little different. We have hundreds of titles covering Art, Pop Culture, Food, Fashion, Travel, History, Home, Kids and Cars. With thousands of available titles we can find the right magazine for you.

Gerardo (Tony) Mena is a decorated Iraqi Freedom veteran. He spent six years in Special Operations with the Reconnaissance Marines and was awarded a Navy Achievement Medal with a V for Valor for multiple acts of bravery while under fire. His work has been published in such venues as Best New Poets 2011, Baltimore Review, Ninth Letter, Prairie Schooner Online, Cream City Review, Poetry East, Cider Press Review, and War.

William Trowbridge, Poet Laureate of Missouri, said that ” You might read Gerardo Mena’s poetry to find out what war is “really” like. However, you’ll find him describing, again and again, its interior reality, its sur-reality, full of humans transformed into or by bayonets, leaves, birds, bullets, flowers, rockets, and coffins in a zone where the fireball from a convoy vehicle blasted by an IED mirrors Van Gogh’s Starry Night.”

”

“Tom T’s Hat Rack” by Michele Spry

My good friend, Tom Trabue, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2012. To watch Tom go through chemotherapy and radiation, yet always remaining so positive, was such an inspiration. A long time ago, I decided to live my life by paying it forward to others as often as I could and try to encourage others to do simple acts of kindness for random strangers. I began writing this book with those two inspirations.

One of the ways I’ve chosen to pay it forward is to become a Partner in Education with Midway Heights Elementary School in Columbia, MO back in 2008. As a Partner in Education, I wanted to reach out to the students at our partner school and encourage them to do something good for someone else and pay it forward – hence, this book. Little did I know “Pay It Forward” is the overall school theme for the Columbia Public Schools for the 2012-2013 year! Coincidence? I’m not so sure!

“Collapse” by TK Carter

Saturday, May 3rd Local author TK Carter joined us in celebrating the release of her new book “Collapse.” Her first book in the Yellow Flag Series focuses on events unfolding around Mid-Missouri in 2016 against the backdrop of a crumbling United States under the weight of failed social and economic policies. Gas rationing, housing redistribution, roving highway bandits, and American terrorists all contribute to a taut story surrounding 3 sets of people struggling to survive the day.

Prologue

They said the election of 2012 was going to be crucial to the future of America. It seemed most Americans voted for one candidate to prevent the greater of two evils from entering office more than it was a matter of voting in favor of their candidate. No one could have predicted what happened. We didn’t see this one coming.

Paul Mazan

Born in Chicago in 1947 I grew up listening to the stories my father and Uncles told of their experiences during World War II. The only time they spoke of the war was at family gatherings when in the company of other veterans and I was fascinated by the stories and sought the men out and listened. The stories sparked a lifelong interest in History and common men faced with the realities of war.I went on to serve in the United States Air Force, get married, father two children and make a carrier in Purchasing and New Product development for Brownells Inc. and Battenfield Technologies. Having attended Gunsmithing summer courses and worked in the firearms industry for over 25 years I learned a great deal about the subject. My writing career started with Magazine articles dealing with firearms restoration and repair and have appeared in several national magazines including Shotgun News, Shooting Times, and American Gunsmith. Always a storyteller, I have tried to combined my love of history, knowledge of firearms, and the stories my father and uncles shared into stories of my own.Today I live in Missouri with Cecile my wife of 45 years and our dog Amber. I consider myself blessed with two grown children and four grandchildren.

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Well I will start off by saying that at no time should the order be indicative of how well I like a book or how much it has affected me. So let’s begin.

“The Rebel Bookseller” By Andrew Laties

From the back cover –Andrew Laties wrote the first edition of Rebel Bookseller in 2005, hoping it would spark a movement.Now, with this fully updated second edition, Laties’s book can be a rallying cry for everyone who wants to better understand how the rise of the big bookstore chains led irrevocably to their own decline, and how, even in the face of electronic reading platforms from some of the world’s largest corporations, the movement to support locally owned independent stores, especially bookstores, is on the rise.

I initially picked this up after reading an article that led to another article that referenced this book. It was not the first time it had happened nor the second, third or fourth and that meant it was time to put the Rebel Bookseller at the top of my “to be read” stack.

The Rebel Bookseller is part history of Andrew Laties’s time as a bookseller spanning nearly 30 years from 1984 to the present, part business book and part rant on the self imposed destruction of the publishing industry and it’s effect on neighborhoods everywhere.

Just last week we were approached at the store by a local TV station and asked to give an interview on the effect of e-readers on the bookstore business. We always walk away from these requests ecstatic and terrified, happy that we get to be heard and scared that the passion that we have for books won’t translate. I opened the front cover of Rebel Bookseller with the intent of reading only the foreword, which was written by Edward Morrow the former president of the American Booksellers Association, and spent the next 30 minutes reading 8 pages. It didn’t actually take 30 minutes to read 8 pages, it took 30 minutes to read the 8 pages 3 times. I was brought face to face with the role of the bookseller within the community in which they reside. Their importance in cultivating new readers not only for the benefit of the bookseller but for the health of the community, the dogged perseverance towards protecting free speech and the continued education of why all consumers should buy locally.

This book deserves to be read by anyone with an interest in the history of the book business but also by those wanting to be a part of a re-birth of the indie business in America.

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Steig Larsson. Crime Fiction

I admit that I got caught up in the craze, but gosh darn it I really liked the story. Larsson spends much of the 1st fourth of the books setting the stage and tone for not only the rest of the novel but the rest of the story arc as well. Be sure to try out some of the other Swedish authors as well such as Jo Nesbo, Karin Fossum and Camilla Lackberg.

“Monster” by A. Lee Martinez. Sci-fi/Fantasy

I’m such sucker for dry comedies and Martinez delivers at every turn of the page. I’ve read “Gil’s All Fright Diner”, “Divine Misfortune” and “The Automatic Detective” and everyone of those are keepers on my shelf.

Contemporary Romance

“Good Girls Don’t” by Victoria Dahl Sept 2011

With her sun-kissed hair and sparkling green eyes, Tessa Donovan looks more like the girl next door that a businesswoman – or a heartbreaker. Which may explain why Detective Luke Asher barely notices her when he arrives to investigate a break-in at her family’s brewery. He’s got his own problems – starting with the fact that his partner, Simone, is pregnant and everyone thinks he’s the father.

Tessa has her hands full, too. Her brother’s playboy ways may be threatening the business, and the tension could tear her tight-knit family apart. In fact, the only thing that could unite the Donovan boys is seeing a man come after their “baby” sister. Especially a man like Luke Asher. But Tessa sees past the rumors to the man beneath. He’s not who people think he is-and neither is she.

I have been a fan of Victoria Dahl’s writing since picking up “Talk me Down” a few years back. While I was looking forward to a stronger showing from her secondary characters I was treated to a fairly deep treatment on the characters for the 2 upcoming books in her latest trilogy. I was disappointed in her treatment of the storyline she developed to bring our characters together. While not as strong as some of her other stories, this is will not keep me from snagging her next book the second it hits our shelves.

“Body Movers” by Stephanie Bond.

One of the things about working in new/used bookstore is that if you are NOT reading romance you are missing out on a huge part of the business (the part that makes it possible for you to pay your bills!). I found out early on that deep down I am a huge fan of romantic comedies and I connected early on with Stephanie Bonds’s narrative. The Body Movers series currently spans 7 books and is a light mystery/romance with plenty of fun little scenes and characters.

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot. Science/American History

This book started off finding itself on must read list when it was nominated for the Columbia Library’s “One Read.” This book reads almost like a piece of fiction as it goes about telling us the story of Henrietta Lacks, who died of cervical cancer in 1951 in the “colored” wing of John Hopkin’s hospital. Henrietta’s cancer cells or HeLa cells, still growing 60 years later, were harvested and sold by the millions while her family continues to live in poverty. The HeLa cells are responsible for developing the Polio vaccine, cancer identification, important advances in gene mapping and cloning. Two thumbs up! This will change how you view modern medicine.

“The Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson. American History

I love this for many reasons but we’ll start with the fact that this books just flat brings it! And I love it because the author, Erik Larson just flat brings it! (Give me a moment to get over my “author crush”)

From Publisher’s Weekly – -Not long after Jack the Ripper haunted the ill-lit streets of 1888 London, H.H. Holmes (born Herman Webster Mudgett) dispatched somewhere between 27 and 200 people, mostly single young women, in the churning new metropolis of Chicago; many of the murders occurred during (and exploited) the city’s finest moment, the World’s Fair of 1893. Larson’s breathtaking new history is a novelistic yet wholly factual account of the fair and the mass murderer who lurked within it.